the innovation imperative
TRANSCRIPT
The Innovation Imperative
Penelope A. Moyers, EdD, OTR/L, BCMH, FAOTA
ABSTRACT. An improved healthcare system will require significant de-partures from current practices. Leadership capacity will provide the abili-ties to innovate and creative thinking needed to be effective in championingthe value of occupational therapy in the future. doi:10.1300/J003v21n01_28[Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service:1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Web-site: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. Allrights reserved.]
KEYWORDS. Vision, innovation, education
Now that the members of the American Occupational Therapy Asso-ciation (AOTA) have articulated an ambitious vision for the profession,the process of developing and fine-tuning strategies for its implementa-tion becomes the priority for our objectives to be met by 2017. As the in-coming President of AOTA, I have specific ideas about what it will takefor us to be successful over this 11-year time period. I believe that theemphasis for enacting this vision should be placed upon innovation andcreativity and upon leadership.
The need to innovate and create is understood when grasping what isbeing considered as the “exponential economy” (Carlson & Wilmot,2006). This type of economy results from globalization and from the in-
Penelope A. Moyers is Professor and Chair, Department of Occupational Therapy,University of Alabama at Birmingham, RMSB 350, 1530 3rd Avenue S, Birmingham,AL 35294 (E-mail: [email protected]). She is also President-elect of the AmericanOccupational Therapy Association.
Occupational Therapy in Health Care, Vol. 21(1/2) 2007Available online at http://othc.haworthpress.com
© 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1300/J003v21n01_28 291
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formation explosion where there is continuous change and improve-ment in activities and products. According to Carlson and Wilmot(2006), “Exponential improvement is a property of many knowledge-based activities, like technology, where, as knowledge is accumulated,it leads to increasingly better solutions” (p. 27). Health care is knowl-edge-based where one idea builds upon another at increasing speed as aconsequence of ubiquitous communication through the Internet. Asgreater numbers of people access computing networks, there will be“wave after wave of surprising new opportunities” (p. 29); therefore,health care is entering a period of revolution.
Revolutionary change is a radically different kind of change as com-pared to evolutionary change. Evolutionary change involves looking foropportunities to make existing services better in ways clients in thehealth care, educational, and social systems already value and expect(Christensen & Overdorf, 2000). For example, when waiting times fortherapy visits are decreased, this is an evolutionary change incorporat-ing a customer service orientation. In contrast, revolutionary changecreates new services and new systems that clients in the health care, edu-cational, and social systems surprisingly value (Christensen & Overdorf,2000). Creating an Internet-based intervention to assist clients withmental illness in managing their activities of daily living might be a rev-olutionary change in that there no longer is a face-to-face therapy inter-action. To implement this kind of service, there also needs to be arevolutionary change in how units of therapy are described and billed.Two kinds of revolution occur as one involves a radical change in ser-vice design and the other involves a radical change in the businessmodel to support the new method of service delivery.
An improved health care system will require significant departuresfrom current practices (Commonwealth Fund, 2006). The rising num-ber of the uninsured and the underinsured, demands an accelerated rateof innovation and improvement in order to more efficiently and effec-tively address the health care needs in the United States. Moving slowlythrough evolutionary change processes, or in other words, basicallymaintaining the status quo in the health care and social systems createshealth, social, and economic costs that are far too great. Growing num-bers of uninsured people, along with an aging population will soon leadto an aggressive health care system reorganization, in which the focuswill be on chronic disease management, prevention, wellness, andlifestyle modifications.
Informatics or the data management systems being developed willpossibly lead to seamless integration of health care globally. The
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client’s health care data follows him or her no matter where services areprovided. Because of advances in communication, it will be feasible towork with clients from anywhere in the world. Imagine the revolutionthat is spawned related to overhauling the state licensing system in orderto allow health care practitioners to interact with clients from multiplejurisdictions.
The question with which we are faced is this: Do our professional or-ganizations have the wherewithal to create the new processes requiredfor innovation?
Leadership capacity determines an organization’s level of effective-ness. We cannot perform beyond our capacity. To enact our vision, wehave to “raise the lid” of our capacity at the global, national, and statelevels (Maxwell, 1998). Our professional associations are only as strongas our leaders and our membership of potential leaders. Without excep-tion, each one of us must become a champion of our challenging vision.Champions are tireless and passionate in their commitment to furtherbuild and enact the vision. They not only persevere in order to remainfocused on the vision, but inspire others to work together, taking full re-sponsibility to come back to the problem in new ways. They have manypartners and are organizationally responsible. Therefore, to be champi-ons, we must surround ourselves with enthusiastic professional associa-tion volunteers. When we recruit one member at a time, the professionalorganization increases by one (Maxwell, 1998). Whereas, when we re-cruit leaders, the professional organization grows by the leader and hisor her colleagues. The more influential the leader, the more colleaguesfollow. Are our leaders of the profession engaged and involved in ourprofessional associations? Have they included their colleagues in theseopportunities to revolutionize our profession?
In continuously improving systems, the key competencies includecreative thinking and the ability to innovate, so that the system foreverchanges the way business is conducted or services are offered.
Creativity is a critical factor in opportunity recognition, which is thefoundation for innovation.
Our profession must pay attention to our external global environmentin new ways, escape linear and rigid patterns of thought (i.e., relying onhow we have always approached issues as a professional association),search for novel patterns and relationships, and be attentive to surprises.What are the actions our professional associations need to implement inorder to increase the likelihood that the creativity of students, practition-ers, educators, administrators, and researchers will be developed anddirected toward achievement of the vision?
Forum: Achieving AOTA'S 2017 Centennial Vision 293
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Unfortunately, established organizations often set highly capablepeople to work within organizational structures whose processes andvalues are not designed for the task at hand (Christensen & Overdorf,2000, p. 76).
Thus, we are faced with an innovation imperative to ensure thatour professional associations are able to promote the highest value ofoccupational therapy associated with meeting the occupational and par-ticipation needs of society throughout the world.
Innovation in our social and health care systems is the only way toachieve the highest value that arises when authentic occupational therapyis provided. We can no longer tolerate systems that restrain our ability toserve society. Innovation depends upon teams of creative individualsworking together within and among all our professional organizations atthe state, national, and global levels. Ultimately it is exciting to enterwhat many believe is the “golden age” of occupational therapy. I amdetermined that we capture these opportunities and work to create in-novations that revolutionize our profession on behalf of those whom weserve.
REFERENCES
Carlson, C. R. & Wilmot, W. W. (2006). Innovation: The five disciplines for creatingwhat customers want. New York: Crown Business.
Commonwealth Fund’s Commission on a High Performance Health System. (Re-trieved August 18, 2006, from http://www.cmwf.org)
Maxwell, J. C. (1998). The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Nashville, TN: ThomasNelson, Inc.
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